Author's Notes: And so, here is the prologue of What I Can Be, the prequel to Come My Restoration and the third story in the All for One, One Forever series, as well as a partial crossover with the late nineties supernatural drama, Poltergeist: The Legacy. It chronicles Anne de Brueil's journey from predator to protector and her friendship with one Dr. Katherine Corrigan. At the end, you'll also see her first meeting with her closest friend and sister-in-law. This won't be as long as Come My Restoration or By Sun or Candlelight. I don't anticipate more than ten chapters, including the respective prologue and epilogue …. again, Anne may throw me a curve ball. I think at this point, we all know how much she enjoys doing that! Oh, and I gotta share this with y'all … the Atlanta Braves are playing the Florida Marlins at Fort Bragg, just about twenty minutes away from me! I'm no baseball fan, but this is just plain awesome ….especially since only members of the military at the installation received tickets (and the stands are PACKED!). The players from both sides got a tour of the base and ate lunch with military families. Oh, the story, right. (shakes head) Sorry, got a bit distracted there. In any event, in the prologue, Tristan asks a question and Anne begins a story, one that doesn't begin with 'once upon a time.' And even when Athos isn't actually in the story, he still gets whumped (for the Athos-whump fans). Forward, march!

Disclaimer: Anne de Brueil (aka Milady de Winter) doesn't belong to me. Nor do Athos, Porthos, Aramis, d'Artagnan, Captain Treville, Mordaunt, Raoul, or Constance. They belong to the BBC. Kat Corrigan, Nick Boyle, Alex Moreau, Father Philip Callaghan, Derek Rayne and Rachel Corrigan (in other words, all things Poltergeist: The Legacy) also do not belong to me, they belong to Trilogy, Showtime, and Syfy. Audelais de la Fere and her daughter Tristan Maddox, however, are mine. Feel free to borrow them … just please ask first, give credit where credit is due, and return them to me intact.

Reviewer Responses:

A reader (for epilogue of By Sun or Candlelight): Thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Hope you enjoy this one as well!

Prologue

Journey of a Thousand Miles

San Antonio, Texas

April 2015

"So, what's San Francisco like?"

Anne de la Fere looked up from the table she was helping to clean, into the bright eyes of her niece. It was three weeks since Robert Maddox left San Antonio for the City by the Bay (good riddance), and his daughter finally got around to asking Anne about the city where he would be living for the next several months. It was two weeks since Anne renewed her vows with Athos … a much quieter, much more private ceremony than their first, presided over by a justice of the peace and Father Philip Callaghan. Only the Musketeers, their ladies, Tristan, Justinian and Sabine were in attendance, because they were the only important ones … aside from herself and Athos. They would have a larger wedding at the end of the year, after Constance's baby was born … but as Anne told Athos when she asked him to marry her again, she couldn't wait that long to stake her claim on him. That made him smile (and Anne would deny this to her dying breath, but every time he smiled at her, she fell in love with him all over again).

For all the pageantry of their first wedding, and as much as she felt (and looked) like a princess in her wedding dress, their second wedding would always be her favorite. She wasn't the same girl who arrived in Pinon Deux to find evidence of Athos de la Fere's guilt in the deaths of his parents, only to fall in love with him. He wasn't the same young soldier who returned home to take up his duty and birthright, and their second wedding reflected that. He'd worn his dress uniform (Musketeers have dress uniforms? Josie had asked in surprise. It would seem so); while she wore a vintage wedding dress from the 1930's that she and Josie found in the thrift store attached to Gennesaret. Understated elegance works best on you, Josie said as she held the simple white dress against Anne. Her sister-in-law knew what she was talking about, and Athos' eyes lit up when he saw her in the simple white dress.

The day of their second wedding was also the first time Tristan called her 'aunt,' although it wasn't 'Aunt,' but 'Tata Anne.' Evidently, someone told her that the French version of 'auntie' was 'tata.' Crazy girl. Anne said now, glancing over her shoulder at her son (who was finger-painting with his little sister and his beloved 'Uncle Rami'), "Hasn't your father told you anything about San Francisco? Or has he focused entirely on Angel Island?" Not that Anne blamed him … she loved not just Angel Island, but the stately Legacy House.

However, Tristan smiled cheekily and replied, "Oh, he tells me about San Francisco, about the ferry from San Francisco to Angel Island, about the rebuilt House, and the Foundation, and the Winston Rayne Hall of Antiquities, but he doesn't tell me about the cool stuff. Like … chocolate. Is Ghirardelli chocolate really as good as everyone says it is?" There was a snicker from Constance Lupiac, and Anne offered the younger woman a mock-glare, which impressed Constance not at all. She was four months along, the baby due in September (poor girl, Josie observed quietly, I was pregnant during the summer. It wasn't pleasant). Not surprisingly, d'Artagnan was quickly turning fretting into an art form. She thought of her own pregnancy with Justinian, and realized with a pang that Athos would have been the exact same way.

She hadn't answered her niece, and she told the girl now, "Don't know. Never had it. And your dad is giving you the only perspective he has." That was something she heard from Nick Boyle, a conversation he'd had with a friend who died in the line of duty, a conversation (or, more appropriately, a bickering session before they became friends). Kristen Adams, her name was, and Anne learned the hard way not to mention her name around Philip Callaghan, as the young woman died saving his life. While she wasn't as close to the priest as her sister-in-law was, she never wanted to see that look on his face again … that look of grief and guilt and pure anguish.

Of course, her answer wasn't enough for Tristan, who sighed with obvious exasperation, "I know that, that's why I'm asking for yours, Tata." Oh, Lord … she hadn't even turned thirteen yet, and she was already becoming a teenager. Anne looked up from her cleaning to chastise the girl … only to find Tristan staring at her with an earnest expression. It was that expression that did her in. It reminded too much of the twenty-something Athos de la Fere she first met, so many years earlier. Sighing, Anne sank onto the bench, and motioned for Tristan to do the same.

"You'll need to visit San Francisco yourself, work out your own perspective. But … I can tell you about how my visit there, my time with Father Philip's friends, changed my life. Would that work?" she asked and Tristan nodded eagerly. Anne took a deep breath and released it, remembering the angry, bitter woman who first touched down in San Francisco nearly two years earlier. She once again heard Kat's disbelieving, 'you left? What if he was in an accident? What if he needed you?' She saw Kat's pretty face contorted in pain and desperation as she fought against the evil that wanted another chance at life … and then she saw the nightmarish images of Athos in pain that her shadow-self inflicted upon her.

When she opened her eyes once more, she was aware that Aramis scooted a bit closer (he thought he wasn't being obvious … idiot), and that both Constance and Ana fell silent. But she kept her eyes on Tristan. She began, "The first thing you need to understand is that I asked your uncle to leave Montreal with me, after Rochefort was put away the first time. I told him that I would be waiting for him in a particular time and place. He didn't come … and so I left. It took me a long time to forgive him … and then, once I learned why he was late, it took me a long time to forgive myself. But I was helped along with the former by three people: Nick Boyle, Alex Moreau, and Kat Corrigan. Especially Kat. You remind me a lot of her. You've heard that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, right? Well, mine began with a whole lot of resentment and a cross-continental flight …"

TBC

Additional Author's Notes: Angel Island is real … it's an island in the San Francisco Bay, maybe a half mile north east of Alcatraz. At one time, it was the Ellis Island of the West Coast and of strategic importance during the Second World War. It was also the setting of the aforementioned Poltergeist: The Legacy, which ran from 1996-2000, and the site of the San Francisco Legacy House (if you've ever watched the tv show Arrow, it was the Queen mansion in that show). However, in real life, there's no castle (unhappily … while the show was set in San Francisco, it was filmed in Vancouver). It's still an amazing place to visit. I was there in 1999, spent an afternoon hiking around the island. Also ... yes, Anne and Athos are officially married again. My apologies for not including the wedding, but I didn't want to slow the story down if I could help it.